In brief: Would you be happy to buy an officially refurbished hard drive from eBay if it meant saving money? Seagate hopes people will, and now has an official storefront on the auction site selling the re-certified HDDs at a considerable discount.
Seagate says the partnership with eBay is part of its Hard Drive Circularity Program designed to reduce e-waste and HDD shredding by promoting the secure reuse of storage hardware.
The company writes that hard drive shredding involves breaking down the components into tiny pieces so that data cannot be recovered. As the drives contain rare earth minerals that cannot be reused, the shredding harms the environment and is not a sustainable practice.
A lot of people will likely be hesitant to buy a used hard drive, but Seagate says its HDDs are factory-recertified and have been through industry-standard sanitization and erasure processes. The main attraction for buyers, though, will likely be the two-year warranty that comes with the components.
The prices of the hard drives are impressive when compared to buying brand-new equivalents. The most expensive HDD, the Seagate Exos X22 22TB, is $311.99, almost half the $571 that a new model costs on Seagate's Amazon store.
Some drive discounts aren't quite as impressive, but still offer good savings. The Seagate Barracuda 10TB is $153 on the eBay store, 24% lower than the $190 it costs to buy a new version.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| Seagate Barracuda 10TB | $153.99 |
| Seagate Exos X16 14TB | $169.99 |
| Seagate Exos X16 12TB | $184.99 |
| Seagate Barracuda Pro 12TB | $184.99 |
| Seagate Exos X16 16TB | $209.99 |
| Seagate Exos X18 16TB | $209.99 |
| Seagate Exos X20 16TB | $209.99 |
| Seagate Exos X20 18TB | $229.99 |
| Seagate Exos X20 20TB | $268.99 |
| Seagate Exos X22 20TB | $268.99 |
| Seagate Exos X22 22TB | $311.99 |
Seagate's refurbished drive store on eBay is a US-only program right now, but it could be expanded to other countries if it proves successful enough.
The store statistics suggest things are going well: 896 items have been sold and the feedback rating is 99.1%. One satisfied user who ordered 8 drives for their NAS wrote that the items look brand new, and have zero power-on hours. The buyer also used SeaTools to confirm that there were no errors.
"eBay is proud to work with Seagate on this exciting partnership," said Renée Morin, eBay's Chief Sustainability Officer. "Refurbishing items gives them a longer life and generally reduces greenhouse gas emissions. In our efforts to be a responsible, sustainable marketplace, this collaboration shows that we all have a part to play."
Masthead: Denny Müller
Seagate launches official refurbished hard drive store on eBay
